A photo-nanoimprint method is one method for forming a resist film having a predetermined pattern shape on a substrate, such as a processing substrate to be processed, and has a manufacturing process including, for example, the following steps (a) to (d) (Non-Patent Literature 1).    (a) an arrangement step of arranging a resist (photocurable composition).    (b) a mold contact step of bringing a mold having a surface in which a fine concavo-convex pattern is formed into contact with the photocurable composition.    (c) a light irradiation step of irradiating the photocurable composition with light.    (d) a mold releasing step of releasing the mold from the photocurable composition after the light irradiation step.
The pattern shape of the resist film formed by the manufacturing process including the above steps (a) to (d) is formed by transferring the concavo-convex pattern of the mold to the resist film arranged on the substrate.
Incidentally, when a photo-nanoimprint method is used, an important subject thereof is to reduce a force, that is, a mold releasing force, required to separate (release) the mold from a resist cured product in the mold releasing step (step (d)). The reason for this is that if the mold releasing force is high, for example, unfavorably, defects may be generated in the pattern, and/or the alignment accuracy may be degraded since the substrate is lifted up from a stage.
In order to solve the problems described above, Patent Literature 1 has proposed a method using a photocurable composition containing a photosensitive gas generating agent which generates a gas, such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide, by a photochemical reaction. The method described above is a method in which at the interface between the photocurable composition and a mold, the bond or the molecular interaction therebetween is broken or eliminated by the pressure of the gas generated from the photosensitive gas generating agent in a light irradiation step so as to reduce the mold releasing force.